Bangladesh urges more help for poor to counter crisis

Of the additional $1.1 trillion (666 billion pound) programme committed by the Group of 20 major advanced and emerging economies, only $50 billion was targeted specifically at low income countries, the government said.

"The resources must be distributed adequately for the benefit of the poor nations and that needs strong commitment from the developed world," said Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and Bangladesh Bank, the central bank, organised a four-day meeting on strengthening the response to the global financial crisis in the region.

Noeleen Heyzer, the Under Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of UN-ESCAP, also called for a larger share of additional resources for both short term liquidity and long term development financing.

"With over four trillion dollars in foreign exchange reserves, the Asian region now has the resources to foster a major programme of generating additional demand through investments in regional infrastructure development," Noeleen said.

He said the global crisis, billed as the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, could cost as many as 24.8 million people in the Asia Pacific region their jobs.

"Millions more will experience rising income insecurity," Noeleen said in the meeting attended by senior central bank and government financial officials from most of the countries in the region including China, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Thailand and Vietnam.

"The region's dynamism that helped in lifting millions of people out of poverty over the past decade is now under threat with the average growth rate for developing Asia-Pacific coming down from 8.8 percent in 2007 to 5.8 percent in 2008 and to just 2.8 percent this year," he said.

He said that experience from Asia's 1997 economic crisis indicates that while economic growth may resume relatively quickly, it could take up to 10 years to recover the ground lost to poverty and social breakdown.

"Demand weakness in North America and Europe caused by chains of insolvencies and wide-scale job losses sharply weakened exports from manufacturing hubs in our region," said Bangladesh's central bank governor Atiur Rahman.

($1=69 taka)

(Reporting by Serajul Islam Quadir; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)